Marijuana as a Scourge and a Salve

As a physician with training in end-of-life care as well as psychiatry, I know that medical marijuana is a double-edged sword. Undoubtedly, marijuana is an effective treatment for the weight loss accompanying AIDS, cancer and other chronic debilitating illnesses.

Yet medical marijuana is also a substance of abuse. Increasingly, patients with severe emotional disorders have been obtaining marijuana from their doctors for problems ranging from headaches and asthma to schizophrenia and psychogenic arm paralysis. Where once there was a headache compounded by depression, patients may now suffer from addiction to marijuana.

Given the availability of other medications, the damages of medical marijuana outweigh the benefits. If it remains accessible, however, the drug should be far more difficult to obtain. It should be prescribed for well-defined, limited purposes and require a continuing medical-psychiatric process of review.